Hard Obsidian - Reboot
by Dark Sentinel Warrior
Summary: Steve appeared out of the blue one day; wandering the cursed remains of Earth with no purpose. For years he survived by himself, killing animals for food and skeletons. All this changed when he met a wandering clan. The details of his past life uncovered slowly. Will he uncover the truth about the world?
1. Chapter 1

I descended down the hills from my horse made of iron. Monsters were nesting in a town long abandoned,

covered in vines and overgrown. Pillars collapsed, tiles strewn. It was once a beautiful place.

Skeletons wearing rusted iron armor charged towards me on skeletal horses. The skeletons were light on

the horses back. I raised my sword and shattered their bony bodies and ripped apart the horses with my

hands clad in obsidian gauntlets.

"What do I fight for?" I asked. "I've seen nobody except these numbskull zombies and skeletons for the

last five years.." I said. I asked myself.

...

I picked some mushrooms and killed a rabbit for dinner. "Now it would be great if I had some carrots or

potatoes to stew it with..."

"Oh wait!" I said. I recognize this plant: an artichoke, and the marshes had marshmallow plants. Not that

sweet and fluffy treat, I forgot the taste of it long ago. It was a root that was good when stewed.

I stirred the stew and tasted it. "Damn that's hot!" I said. "Whatever." I picked the pot up with my

jade gauntlets and started stabbing every piece of meat with a sharpened stick. I drank down the broth.

I've crafted all my simple belongings myself: my pick, my axe, my shovel, the armor and clothes on my back,

and my cookware. I've skinned deer for my leather bags and collected iron from pools of red ooze and red rocks.

It was a simple and violent existence.

Life wasn't always like this. I had flashbacks of a previous life: one with friends and family, one where I

went to school. I didn't know what to make of these memories, I forgot the names of my friends and family, I

forgot the taste of the food I ate, if a name popped up I would not know what it represent. The only name I knew

was "Steven", my name.

The flashbacks would end in my world being burnt, of my friends and family lying in a pool of blood before me.

"What is the meaning of this?" I asked myself. "Who are these people? And why are they dying?" I felt neither

sadness nor fear, as I saw them die hundreds of times.

I would be chained up above a mountain of corpses. Lashed by spinal cords and bitten by severed heads, but then

I was offered a second chance at life by... I don't remember... I don't remember anything.

I woke up screaming, clutching my bearskin blanket. "WHAT THE F-"

I was sleeping next to the ashes of my fire. "Huh?" I picked up the cool end of a smoldering log.

Just one of my many nightmares. I'm not afraid, there is no skeleton stronger than I am. I can cut anything apart with

my heavy blade.

...

A few months passed since I had my last nightmare, I don't bother to keep track of time. I just kill skeletons with my

sword, and kill any animal I can find for dinner. It was the same old thing: spend the day killing, maybe kill a rabbit

to cook up, and if I'm lucky I can find a deer or a boar.

I looked down the plains. "Horses?" I said grabbing my blade. "Haven't seen one of those in a while."

I walked over, "Alright, how did a skeleton gang tame that many?-"

"HUMANS!" I screamed. I raised my blade and knocked a guy off of his horse with the flat side of my blade. I punched

him in the face, unsure whether to kill him or not. Three humans shot me with a crossbow. I cut the bolts in midair.

"Haven't seen a human for a while!" I said. "It's been lonely, care to entertain me with a fight?"

I threw everyone off of their horses and beat them up. They looked like children, I didn't want to kill a bunch of kids,

just hurt them badly enough that they'll be unable to move. They carried bows and swords that looked small and puny compared

to mine. "Come on weaklings! Time you met a real opponent."

I charged at a guy with a

"Come on Ricky!" said a guy. "Take him out!"

"Alright Kayl!" he said. Ricky was a guy with a crossbow. I kicked it out of his hands and threw my gauntlets on the ground next

to him. I beat his face like I would a skeleton. "A lot more formidable than those skeletons I see?" I said. "I'm loving thi-"

The Ricky kid took out a frying pan and hit my head. CLANG! I was knocked out.

...

I've spent a few days knocked out. I was laying down in a cot with a cotton mattress and linen sheets."Hey, wake up." said Kayl.

"Hi." I said. "Knock it off, I want to sleep."

"You've been sleeping for three days." he said. "Get off your lazy ass and do something."

I trudged up, we were in a tent. "So, your stuff is by your feet. All your armor and weapons and belongings.. By the way, Where did you

get all of it?"

"I forged my armor myself." I said. "I took obsidian pieces and strung them together using leather straps.

It's painstaking work- Oh don't tell me you want one yourself."

It's painstaking work- Oh don't tell me you want one yourself."

"Impressive." he said. "It seems you've hit obsidian rocks together to make this axe and knife."

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" I screamed.

"Alright, what's your name." he asked.

"Steven, just call me Steve. I assume you're this Kayl guy."

"Exactly!" he said. "I'm Kayl, pleased to meet you."

We ate some potato and meat stew by a campfire. "So you're the new guy." said a guy sitting on a log opposite of me. "Welcome to

the clan! My name is Ricky!"

"Oh fricky Ricky!" I said. "I didn't ask for an invitation, and why did you even pick me up? Were you that kid who knocked me out?"

"Well yea-" I picked him up by his collar and slapped him clean across the face. "That's for the frying pan you little runt." I said.

He rubbed his face. "Well you were unconcious for three days, if we left you on the ground you would be killed by a skeleton."

"Yeah, at night bad things come out." said Kayl.

"I spend every night out in the open. Do you think I'm scared?" I asked. "I don't need a fancy little tent to keep me safe!"

"Incursions in this area have been getting worse. You know what's worse than a skeleton? an Archidon, or a Swordswrath, or a

Spearlancer, and a Shield Sentinel."

"What are they little Ricky?" I asked.

"They're skeletons, but they all wear red armor and carry a bow, sword, spear, and shield. And can you not call me little Ricky?"

"Heh, but you're a shrimp!" I said. "Honestly, your whole clan is made of a bunch of wimps!"

"Alright, I've decided that I'll join you. But I'll earn my keep. What's in it for me?"

No answers. "Well as long as you provide me room to sleep, food, and shine my boots I'll be fine. But the moment you mistreat me or

turn your back on me, I'll slice your heads clean off."

"Got it." said Ricky.

...

Two girls were talking in a tent about me: Alya and Maria. I eavesdropped their conversation. "What do you think about the new guy?" said

Alya.

Maria pondered. "Hmmm... He seems quite skilled. Apparently he forged his own sword out of iron ore he harvested, and created his own armor

out of obsidian plate. And he's an expert survivalist so he'll know how to survive in the woods. And he's kinda cute."

"Oh give me a break..." I said silently. Honestly I didn't consider myself much of a pro at all. I just scraped by like anyone else, I'm just another rabbit eating grass, albeit a slightly fatter one.

...

I was sitting in a larger tent with three stools. Two guys sat across from me. "So, we've been informed of your decision to join our clan! This

is my brother Alex, and I'm Zach. We're delighted to have you."

"Hi Alex, hi Zach." I said. "So, I take it you're the leader."

"Yes." he said. Zach had spiky blond hair, he had leather trousers and a lightly armored cloth shirt. Alex had jet black hair, he had thicker armor

and was more shy.

"With you as the leaders to this clan, I'm surprised you've even lasted this long." I said. "How long have you been adventuring."

"Five years."

"Five years... I've been out for much longer I can tell you that. I don't know how long, could be twenty, could be hundreds. My memory isn't

that sharp. Well I do faintly remember living with a family and-"

"And?" asked Zach.

"I don't know, I lived in a place with cities and lots of people. I had family and friends, all of them were killed. But I don't know how long ago

was that."

"A big city?" asked Zach. "There's ruins of big cities, but no.. You can't have lived in one of those. You look just a bit older than us, I don't

know if you're even telling the truth."

Alex looked at me with an interested look. "You remember?"

"Well I don't even know if I'm telling the truth to myself." I said. "All I can vividly remember is sinking this sword through skeletons."

"Your first mission is to raid a skeleton outpost. It's populated by club-wielding units, but a few of them have decent armor and weapons. I'm counting

on you to take them out, can you do that?"

"You kidding? I can totally do that!" I said.

"Well then, I suggest we go to sleep. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."


	2. Chapter 2 - The Enemy Asunder

We rode on horse-drawn carriages in open fields. "Excuse me, what was life like in the big cities of the past?" I asked Zach who was riding. I sat on a bench in the carriage, resting my feet on folded tents.

"I don't know." Said Zach. "From what I can gather, life was quite splendid. Water came from the wall, living arrangements were piled high to the wall, there were a lot of people, and the treasure troves were full of opulent splendor!"

"Seems nice, but not really. I'm used to surviving in the wild, I'm used to finding my own food, filtering my own water, traveling long distances, and killing skeletons. A life where everything is piped up to your room seems kind of lazy, don't you think?"

"Well I suppose." Said Zach. "I can't argue with that."

Alex pinned out some battle plans. "Okay, so the skeleton camp is nearby. It's larger than usual, about five hundred skeletons which are poorly armed. A few Swordswrath or Spearlancers, not enough to enter a formation and do serious damage.."

He seems like a shy guy but he's a brilliant battle tactician. "Show then no mercy Steve!" He said. "Alright, Steve the noob?"

"What's a noob?-" I almost asked. Then I remember myself playing a video game, fighting off endless waves of skeletons. I died. "Ha ha you noob!" Said my friend.

"What's a noob?!"

"Oh, I don't remember." Said Alex. "Just call my friends noob, it sounds sorta cute yet demeaning, but not in a bad way-... Whatever."

...

The skeleton camp drew near. All members of the clan were sneaking under green cloaks. "Alright, time to shoot the watchmen." Said Kayl. Ricky held big rocks

Kayl shot a Watchman, it crumbled into a pile of bones on the ground. Ricky pummeled it's three friends with rocks. "Good job Ricky!" Said Kayl. "Now let's go!"

Skeletons filed out of the gate. Alya and Maria used their swords and shattered the fragile club-wielding skeletons. I charged in.

"What! That wasn't part of the plan!" Shouted Alex. "Get back he- oh wait, he's actually doing quite well..." he said.

I spun my blade, more crudely made and rough than any in the clan but doing much more damage. Nevertheless, it was a sword which gives the skeletons a taste of raw iron. In one swing I took out a third of the clan's worth of skeletons

"DIE!" I shouted. I tore the tents, black and rotted with moss growing on them. A few Spearlancers and Swordswrath stood, the best of the camp.

"Well, you guys take their weapons." I said. "You need them."

I swung my blade around me. CLANG! They shattered into bits.

"YEAHHH!" Shouted everyone. Zach picked up the swords and spears, giving it to the under-geared members of the clan. "Here you go, here you go.."

Zach definitely had more charisma, and Alex had the tactical advantage. Together they made a great team. I wanted to help: first I taught them which mushroom species are edible. We foraged mushrooms for dinner.

"So you got chanterelles.. fairy rings... sweet tooth... meadow shroom, maitake, puffball, and ooohhh you got a bunch of morels! Those are good!"

Next I taught them how to gather hickory salt.

"So you cut up branches into small sticks. Boil it down into a black slime. Tastes kind of like this stuff called soy sauce. I have no clue how to make that, but this will work in the meantime."

I had a flashback, suddenly I knew all about soy sauce making. "Soybean, wheat, yeast..." no, we can't use these because we don't HAVE them

The rest of the day was spent tying knots, listening to my sermons about survival skills, and learning how to better maintain a wagon. I also drew a blueprint to build a wagon.

"Gather a bunch of logs together, and gather something that can make paper. We're staying at this camp until I can leave with a decent book and until we make a new wagon."

We went to sleep, everyone was dumbfounded at my new knowledge.

...

About a month has passed. I uncovered more about my new life: family life, school, subjects I learned, sports, but one thing: how the hell did I end up here?

We were able to leave with a new wagon and a leather bound book. I knew how to tan leather, as tanning was an essential part of preserving animal skins. The book was a shocker to many, as none of these kids had ever seen paper.

"That's weird, I remember all this scientific knowledge but I don't know where it's from." I said to Alya who was writing in the book. "Hmmm..."

"Like I know wagons were once used to carry people and materials across the continents and to travel in the past. But... I don't know where and exactly when."

"Well, if you don't know I definitely wouldn't know." Said Alya. "I can tailor another book for you."

Yes, she was a skilled tailor. She mends ripped clothes so perfectly, and she did the stitching for the book. I explained that this was how they were made in the past, but I can tell mine was rough compared to the one I used to own. Needless to say I was proud of how it turned out.

I also found a piece of graphite which I carved into a pencil. It was tedious forming it, carving it into a small shape and putting it in a wooden cylinder, but it was worth it. Wrapping it in paper was messy, and writing with a block of graphite was also messy and slippery

I had a tent of my own: an inventors workshop. There was a table with drawers, and a wooden chest which I engraved patterns inside to spice it up. It reminded me of a civilization in the past which colonized other lands, their furniture was rather simplistic.

I was busy with thought, thinking of the next thing to make. "Let's see, what's important... OH I KNOW! A MAGNET!"

"Storm clouds are approaching, and we can climb this hill." I said. "Let's make some magnets!"

It was stormy, I was staring at the sky. Thunder was crackling.

"So what's a magnet?" Asked Kayl. "What will you use it for?"

"We're going to mine iron." I said. "It can attract itself towards iron deposits, and can suck up iron from river sand. We can bake it and forge it into real iron."

"Oh that's good." Said Kayl. "So, where did you get this info."

"I definitely remember more now. I did live in one of those big cities."

"WHAT...!"

"Well I didn't live INSIDE the big city, just in an area outside of one. I could remember looking at it, but I don't remember anything inside it."

"Where was it?" He asked. "Not that I'd know."

"The name was the town was Philadelphia. Dunno anything else about it."

"Ah, confusing as always. But I'd have to trust you on your word, because you're literally the one that knows the most."

"Heh! I know!"

...

We decided to mine iron, dipping the ends of the magnets into the river. "Look! Some black sand is sticking to it!" said Zach

"Yes that is iron." I said. "Keep it. The skeletons clearly don't have enough for us."

They're like fire ants, much less of an army and more of a dangerous creature. Their bases are all the same, and their movements are all computerized. They can be strong, but they're also extremely predictable, just like video game enemies. I do remember my first skeleton kill clearly, I had an obsidian spear. With no hesitation I killed it.

"So, we can get five swords which equate to nine pounds per raid.. or we can get fifteen pounds of black sand when we look for iron like this."

"Right." Said Zach scraping his magnet into a bucket. "This is a lot more efficient, and we're not even done for today."

"This is cool! I can finally make an anvil!"

"What's that?" Asked Alex.

"An anvil is a work surface to forge metals on. I've been making swords using a smooth rock, or I've been hitting obsidian together, but this is better. We need a hundred pounds of metal or so."

"Sounds good to me." Said Zach. "A huge ass block of iron to hit more iron on top of."

I've been making armor for everyone, and I'm teaching them my skills. One type is obsidian armor, from an ancient civilization called China. The next is medieval armor, well just parts of it. It comes from Europe, they used to clothe their soldiers in whole suits of metal. We can't move around in that!

"Okay, we finally cooked up that glass: sand and lime, simple. But does anyone know how to blow it?"

Five clan members blew on a bulb of glass on a straw of iron. "Well making it is the easy part, working it is the hard part." I said. "Well, damn."

Alex picked up a straw and began shaping it with great dexterity. We looked at him dumbfounded. "How did he.."

"I do remember glassblowing. Not sure when, I'm sure that my situation is similar to Steve right there: we did have a past life, and we somehow appeared on this world."

"What was your life like?" I asked him as he blew the glass into a vial. "Do you have a clue?"

"Well I did live in a place called Pittsburgh, and I had a hobby of glassblowing and forging railroad spikes." He said

"I recognize a bunch of names, but I can't piece them together. I just know that Pittsburgh was close to Philadelphia where I lived."

"I also do remember Zach. We're brothers, but he doesn't seem to remember me."

"I don't have a clue where the hell you lived, but I can only trust you at your word."

"I actually do remember a lot, but here's the problem: I don't remember walking inside the city. I remember the city as a bunch of blue buildings in the distance, but I don't remember going anywhere close. Also I don't remember how I got here." I said. "If I can just figure that out."

"I highly doubt you survived however many thousand years. Human bodies simply aren't made to last that long. But yes, living that long would cause you to forget many of your memories."

I drew a blueprint with my pencil. "So, you're going to make a canteen for all of us. It should be half an inch thick so it doesn't shatter when you drop it. And also we can try to find some cork."

"Cork?" Asked Alex.

"Yeah, the bark of a cork tree. But for now we can use some leather tied up with a rope.


	3. Chapter 3 - Remnants of Humanity

I stood by the water with a dish. "What's this guy doing?" asked Zach dipping his feet in the river.

"I don't know." said Alex. "But it seems important."

Everyone was playing around at the river like little children. "I'm doing something productive, not playing in

the creek like I'm goddamn five." I said. I scraped what I found in a glass bottle.

"Hey what's that yellow stuff?" said Zach.

"You'll see. If only I had some nitric acid..."

"Nitric what?!"

"Forget it, it's not like we can find any. Raw gold will have to do for now."

"About your sword." said Alex. "It looks very rough and raw, like it was made of unrefined iron. How has that thing

not broke?"

I chuckled. "Well, I collect iron from a variety of sources: There's a species of orange iron bacteria which I mix with

lime, ash, and charcoal and smelt, and there's red hematite rocks. I created many ingots and forged them together

to make this.

"Your sword is five inches wide, half an inch thick, and about six feet tall. Taller than you. It's effective against skeletons

but against a real enemy, it will snap in half."

"I'll re-forge your sword into proper steel, while you create a set of obsidian armor." said Alex. "Breastplate, pauldrons, leg

guard, and boots. I'll wear leather underneath."

"You killed that deer earlier." I said. "Keep the antlers, and also cut some of the leather into little strips. It's time I actually

taught you guys to make this armor."

He smiled. I showed what was in the bottle. "Gold, this was once a highly coveted resource in the old world. Treasuries were stocked

high with it, this metal was a symbol of power. I'll try to refine it and pound it into an ingot."

"I know what gold is, but I doubt the others would know what it is, please show them."

All fourty-five members of the clan gathered around, I was giving them a lesson on creating obsidian armor. Or the younger ones just

came to look at my bottle of gold which I cleared of pebbles.

"Wow! This is a shiny metal." said a young boy named Micah.

His sister Juliah came over. "Yes, it's like super yellow, super shiny pebbles."

"I'm teaching some students to craft armor." I said. "Now will you let me concentrate?"

They shut their mouths and began silently meddling. Micah grabbed a piece of sharp obsidian on the ground. "OWW!" said Micah with his

hand bleeding.

"Serves you right." I said. "Go wrap it up in linen."

Micah wrapped it up. "Not too much or your finger will rot off." I said. "You don't want to cut off circulation."

I continued teaching my clanmates to create the armor set. "I'll teach you to make the pauldrons, and it will be it for tonight."

...

Alex walked over with a long object wrapped in leather. "Open it, kind of like a christmas present." he said.

I opened it. "Christmas." I said. "Wow, I'm impressed you remember something like that-"

I opened the leather package, I was immersed by a wave of nostalgia. My family gave me a gift for christmas: a sword with a pixelated

texture from a game I played. "Wow.. Thank you for the gift."

It was night outside. My once rough and corrugated blade was white and shiny, reflecting the moonlight. "Ah, this is the most precious

gift that I have ever recieved."

Alex sat by me on a log by the fire. "So, do you have a direction which you would like to take this clan?" I asked. "What is our purpose,

or are we just clinging to the edge of survival."

"Exactly." said Alex. "We're a clan of wanderers. Not bandits or raiders, we're more like tribesmen. We just survive in a skeleton-infested

world."

"I see." I said. "I do believe somewhere there might be other people. I mean I found you guys, it can't just be the fourty-or-so of us in this

world."

"Actually our scout team found you, and you decided to beat them up. But at least you decided to walk with us. You're a living bank of knowledge."

I chuckled. "You think so?"

...

I laid awake in my tent, yawning. The sunlight pierced its way through the mottled cloth.

I felt water drip on my face, was it raining? I could've sworn it was sunny-

Kayl stood over dripping water on my face. Zach, Ricky, Alya, and Micah were laughing.

I grabbed the bottle and splashed Kayl with it. "Oh no, now I've done it!" he said. He took off running towards the creek.

I grabbed a bucket and splashed him.

He grabbed another bucket and splashed it at my face, we were splashing each other like we were five.

Finally when he was exhausted, he stopped splashing. "I surrender!" he said. I dumped another filled bucket over his head

and plopped it on him. "There's your hat."

"So, want to change into something dry?" he said. "Actually, go put on your armor. We're going right now."

I changed into a dry shirt and pants and slipped on my obsidian plates. "We're going Eastward, not that we know for sure anything's there but

it's worth checking. Who knows?! We might find a village with people in it!"

"Yeah that would be cool, if we don't cause a war that is." I said. "Who knows what dangerous bandit clans we may run into, or god forbid

we run into a militarized nation! I don't wanna find out what would happen if we run into those."

"So, we're going to have to make armor for ourselves. Arm ourselves to the teeth, and also arm our horses. We want to meet more people, but

we want to be prepared if they're willing to fight."


	4. Chapter 4 - Incursion met with Fire

...

"How long has it been?" I asked Alex who was planning our course. "Since you picked me up."

"Well, it's been like four months. I know we picked you up some time during march so now it's July."

"Hey look a hot spring!" said Alya. She had quite perceptive eyes, everyone rushed towards it and decided to take a dip.

"Ah, you littl children." I said. "While you guys take a bath, I'll help myself to this yellow stuff!" I said ripping a

chunk of yellow crystal. "Hee hee hee!"

"What's that?" asked Juliah.

"This? It's called Sulfur. Has plenty of uses, mainly to explode stuff. It can be used for pharmaceuticals, fertilizer,

food treatment, but most importantly creating gunpowder."

"I'm going to create flintlock muskets. After you guys soak up, gather as much of this stuff as you can."

"Got it!" said Alex. "I'll pick up."

"We'll mix it with charcoal and saltpeter. Don't ask me how I made it?"

"How?" asked Alex.

"I SAID NOT TO ASK!"

"No, I'm curious."

"My own piss I've been saving and campfire ash. Happy?"

"Oh.. Alright."

...

"Hey can you pass me the Pyrite?" I asked Kayl.

"Here's your yellow rock." he said. He handed me the ingot.

I tossed the chunk of metal, it was way too heavy. "No you doofus, this is GOLD!" I said. "We're going to make telecommunications

with those."

"Tele-what?" he said.

"A telephone. Back then, people had smartphones. Ours will be chunky and boxy, but I know exactly how to make a phone. If only I

knew someone who was dextrous enough to solder.

"Did someone say solder?" said someone coming inside my tent.

"Yes, solder. can you help with that?!"

He was a kid named Cobalt. Like me and Alex, he had a past life. He remembered coding and building circuit boards. He once created a

computer from scratch.

"I know how to create a cellphone, not too hard."

"NOT TOO HARD?!" shouted Alex. "DID YOU JUST SAY A TELEPHONE WASN'T HARD?"

"Nope, not at all."

"Guns first, and then telephone. Right now, our priority is something to shoot with. We aren't going to split up any time soon.

...

Skeletons descended down from the hills. "Alright alright alright, let's teach these brainless idiots what a bullet to the face feels like."

I said. I aimed at a Swordswrath and accidentally hit a totally different skeleton. "Damn it my aim was off." The gun was crafted perfectly,

but my skill was not something to be proud of.

Everyone was given guns. They aimed terribly, hitting skeletons but that was because there were so many. I facepalmed, charging into battle

with my sword.

I crushed five swordswrath with one hit. "RARRGHH!" I yelled. There was a Shieldswrath who tried to smash me apart with a shield. I grabbed

it and crushed him instead.

This was an incursion, a rather big one. These happen quite often. It used to be that the clan members would get totally demolished during

each incursion. No more would this be the case, I clothed them with armor and I forged them swords. And I also created battle tactics which

will serve them well in battle.

I was too tired to function. "The battle... has been won!" I said. I leaned on my sword.

This was the largest incursion we fought. Normally the clan would run and cower, but the enemy fell dead. None of us have died, and we were

able to walk away with skeleton loot

I collapsed on the ground, right in the arms of Kayl and Alya.


	5. Chapter 5 - Familiar Grounds

I was laying down in a tent wearing a leather shirt. The sun had just disappeared over the horizon and it had begun to storm. "Ahh geez. How

often do we get incursions like this?" I asked Kayl.

"We get hit by those like once a month. They seem to be getting worse lately. Each incursion creates skeletons which nest in caves and form

camps in abandoned villages."

"Do you know where the skeletons came from?"

"No." he said. "We have no clue."

"I see." I said. "Basic biology forbids skeletons to move on their own. It has to be that another force is acting on them."

"It could be magnetic, you made that sculpture with... No, that won't work. We tore one apart, plus we sprayed them with black sand and they didn't stick."

"Now that we created some guns, how about some phones?"

"Phones? For long-distance communication?" asked Kayl.

"We'll get started tomorrow, but I'll go to sleep for now. Good night."

"Hey dude wait!- Oh nevermind, he basically carried us through the skeletons."

...

Yeah it was a good choice to let me sleep right? If he didn't it would be grounds for a beating.

Colbalt held a thin wire of solder. I was arranging together vacuum tubes made from glass bulbs that Alex blew. We spent a few months gathering resources.

It was the dead of winter, and it was currently midnight.

"Well, I never thought I'd see plastic again, impressed you pulled it off from charcoal and beeswax."

"Hah." I said. "Yeah, and we finally have a use for all our gold. We just had some shiny ingots."

I picked up half of the phone, it was massive. The phone wasn't anything you can hold in your hands, it was massive.

We had built one wagon to hold one phone. We also had a generator which took up one wagon.

"So, the last of the five phones turned out well." said Cobalt. "I'd say our little project was a success."

"Yeah, took all fall. But your crazy idea actually works." he said licking a Rochelle salt crystal. "I'm honestly impressed."

"Give me that!" I said. "Are you fricken crazy?! I used LYE to make that!"

"No it tastes kinda like grape." he said.

"That's because I used grape acid for that. You're smart enough to solder a circuit board but you don't have the common sense

not to lick salt and metal."

Kayl sat down laughing. "So, how does that phone thing work?" he asked.

"Well, basically you yell into the microphone: the cone thing made of copper. And then it transmits the signal into electromagnetic waves, and it comes

onto the recieving end of the other phone. It's super complicated."

"Seems about right." he said. "So now, we can split up into five units."

"Not yet." I said. "We only have one magnetic generator. Nice try."

"Dammit!" he said.

"Don't worry, we can make more. But we need to find more horses and tame them, the generators are heavy as hell and we need six horses per wagon.. So

four more wagons is twenty four horses..."

We have a tamer: Gideon. He says the problem about finding horses isn't taming them, it's finding them. When society fell, all the pet horses ran loose

and populated the world, meaning that they can be found everywhere. But the problem is that most of them are skeletons, when I found mine I took the

opportunity to find it and cover it in protective iron armor.

"Well, it's not like we can buy one." said Alex. "Oh wait, we can create a car!.. No, I don't know how to create an automobile from scratch."

"I do, we can make an automobile and create carbon fiber. But we're not quite there yet. We can create tanks later."

"Alright!" said Alex. "By the way, Zach has something decided for you."

...

All our clanmates stood around waiting. I kneeled down. "Steven has carried us through every conflict. He shattered bone, held his ground, and

fought in the front."

"He provided us with vital knowledge, giving us technology and weaponry, and the skills to survive. For his skill, strength, and courage, he is

now the leader of the clan."

Everyone cheered. We were all shook off the snow that accumulated on our shoulders. The sky was a dark red as the last rays of sun struggled

to reach us.

We heard loud groans, as if a trumpet played a very low bass. "Here we go again."

"Everyone! Grab your weapons!" I said. "The first act as the leader of the clan is fending off a wave of skeletons!"

We rode on our wagons and charged through a mass of unarmed skeletons; weak in strength but great in number. They died under the crushing wagon weels

and under the shoes of our horses.

There was a light, "Huh? Isn't it's supposed to be night time?!" I asked. "Why is the sky a deep red?!"

The skeletons had glowing red eyes, something I never saw before. And they screamed, something I never expected. A few unarmed piles of bones now seemed

like a formidable attack force.

Five clanmates got ripped off their horses and torn apart. "NO!" shouted Zach. He lunged into the fray with his sword and pulled three wounded clanmates.

I grabbed him by the stomach and allowed him to throw the soldiers in the wagon. Unfortunately a skeleton tore his arm off.

He screamed in pain. "AHHHHHHH!"

"Help?! Who's the medic here?!"

A girl named Chloe poked her head out of the wagon. "I am, I'll bandage them up." I almost forgot: Chloe attended med school during her past life, she had

knowledge of modern medicine but no medication. The wounded will most likely die of infection.

"I can distill some alcohol later for them. But for now keep their wounds clean. And stop the bleeding." I said. We ground to a halt, as there was a

cliff in our way.

"Crap, a mountain range." I said. Judging by where we're headed, this is the start of the Appalachian Mountains. I've concluded we're in North America judging

by the plant and animal species.

We held our shields and locked into phalanx formation. These were trash shields, but fighting with trash was better than fighting with nothing.

The skeletons were dead. Now came the "final boss" of the incursion. "I got it!" said Ricky throwing a stone. It hit the monster, but did no damage.

The monster was a massive skeleton lord, wearing spiked armor and riding on an equally massive horse. "Puny humans!" it said. "I decide where you die,

and you die here!"

"YOU MONSTER!" I yelled. "HOW MANY HUMANS HAVE YOU KILLED!"

"Many clans!" he said. "Strong, mighty, courageous! None have stood against my axe! All have knelt under my fist of metal or have been eviscerated by the embrace

of the claws of my minions! Your clan is nothing!"

"Why? WHY DO YOU DO THIS?!" I screamed.

"Heheheh! Why not? The bloodshed tastes so good, I feed upon human screams, bathe in their sorrow! They seem to be pretty rare nowadays, but you! You are quite the

morsel!"

I charged off of my horse and began bashing the skeleton lord. "I just need to pierce through his armor.." I said to myself.

"Pierce through my armor?! With that sword?!" he said laughing. "No human has ever been able to injure me in the least! How will you manage!"

I wasted no time. He swung his axe and aimed at my head. I quickly blocked the hit with my sword.

Eight clanmates came to assist me. He swung his axe and TORE them apart. Blood, fecal matter, viscera, and stomach contents splattered across the floor. We all screamed.

"NO!" I shouted. "NO!"

I was angry. I kicked him off of his horse. "WHAT THE?! A HUMAN CAN DO THIS!"

I caved in his helmet. Both clanmates and skeletons watched on two opposite sides. I tore his helmet off and removed his arms.

"YOU KILLED THOSE THREE!" I shouted. "NOW YOU DIE!"

I tore his fragile jaw off; it felt like it was linked by a magnetic force, only stronger. Immobilized, I removed every piece of his armor and dismantled him bone

from bone.

It was a horrible and strange way to kill a skeleton, but it was a way to kill a skeleton. I once killed a deer by trapping it and repeatedly stabbing it with a knife.

We dealt with the dead corpses of our clanmates.

In one deathly battle, we lost ten members. We are now at thirty-five. The skeletons retreated.

...

We rolled along in wagons. The terrain changed from totally flat land, to foothills mixed in with trees, to mountains and forest. I looked outside, shocked.

This mountain was familiar: Camelback Mountain. I remembered skiing there and camping there.

We fished by the lake, hiked in the woods, and didn't bring a tent. I was able to build a lean-to when I was younger, and build a whole log cabin. It's probably long decayed by now.

"WAIT! A CAPSULE I BURIED! I said. "I BURIED A BUNCH OF CRAP HERE!"

"Really? Where!" asked Kayl.

"Under the cabin." I said. We pulled by the spot. "Ah, the rocks look the same! A bit weathered, but still mostly there.

"Now if nobody touched this, we're in for a treat... The cabin has long been decayed by now but glass never decays."

I took out my shovel and dug in the ground. I remember the exact pattern of rocks I put over the capsule. I pulled out a glass object.

"Aaaand.. Voila! We have our capsule."

Everything was wrapped in paper, the glass was welded shut so no moisture can enter.

I smashed the thick capsule on a rock and unwrapped everything.

"These are some blueprints for the future." I said. "An automobile, a wood gas generator, a crossbow, a rifle, and a survival guide. One of

the many thousands of things in this book."

"These are some drawings I made." I said. They were of dragons, knights, video game characters, and anime characters.

"Look! It's Guts! and Griffith!"

"Oh who are those six right there?" said Kayl.

"Those are Vanilla, Choco- NO!" I said ripping up the paper. "On a second thought, I might regret ripping apart a thousand year old drawing. God, I'm

so stupid."

"Your fault. You just decreased the value of a potentially priceless drawing."

"I can hide the rip, I only tore it in half."

"Onwards, this is a snack: a chinese sesame maltose snack. I made it myself, just don't expect more of it until I'm able to grow some glutinous rice

and barley. And if we want to make some, we have to give up this nomadic lifestyle because these crops need care and attention."

"Tastes good." said Zach.

"Yeah! Freakin' delicious for a thousand year old snack!"

"And here are some seeds. I'd figure they'd go extinct. So I do have wheat, rice, barley, millet, and a bunch of fruit and vegetables."

"I don't know when we are able to grow them, we need a home base for that. But when we find a good area we can stop."

I collected the glass shards and the paper, it was better not to waste it.

"We're headed to Philadelphia!" I said. "I know the way south."

"What's the point of going there?!" asked Zach. "Everything is probably rotted by now."

"We're going south. The weather and land will be more suitable for farming, and we might actually run into people."

"Yeah." said Zach. "We can work on our automobiles since we have a blueprint. Also we can make a gas

generator. The horses can be repurposed for heavy cavalry."

I nodded. "By the way, I also buried a capsule back at Philadelphia. Wanna come see it?"

"Sure!" said Alex. "Let's see anything is left over there. Maybe a few brick and stone builds, but

anything iron would be long rotted away."

The future seemed hopeful and bright. We turned south, I knew my way back from here.


End file.
